Coffee - As a Health Drink

It is a pity that coffee does not get the credit and the attention it deserves. Coffee tends to get bad press and focus on negative effects of caffeine and we generally underestimate the importance of coffee in our life. Coffee is seen just as a drink, but it actually provides countless health benefits. Coffee may not be in the prescription by a physician. But nevertheless it plays a significant role in ensuring a healthy life for us.

People love coffee. They start their daily routine with a steaming cup of coffee in the early morning. But it is a question whether they really realize the benefits of coffee as a health drink. Coffee stops headache. It boosts your mood. These are the good things about coffee that all of us know. But there are more than what eyes meet in coffee matters.

• Research has shown that coffee minimizes the risk of diabetes.

• Believe it or not, coffee lowers the risk of Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. People who drink coffee regularly are around 80% less likely to be affected by Parkinson’s disease than who do not take coffee at all.

• Regular drinking of coffee distances you from colon cancer. Daily two cups of coffee, the risk you may get colon cancer is reduced by 25%.

• Two cups of caffeinated coffee per day, liver cirrhosis risk is decreased by 80%.

• Moderate intake of coffee reduces the risk of developing gallstones.

• Coffee reduces the risk of early stage diabetes. Coffee improves insulin sensitivity and it reduces blood sugar levels. Research has shown that if you drink three cups of caffeinated coffee per day, diabetes risk is reduced by considerable amount. If you drink six cups of caffeinated coffee daily, risk of diabetes is reduced by a whopping 50%.

• Coffee may help ward off asthma. Coffee eases out the nasal passages and improves airflow.

• Coffee contains antioxidants that fight against viral infection. One cup of coffee contains more antioxidants than one cup of grape juice!

• Coffee contains chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, and protocatechnic acid. These chemicals show excellent antibacterial effects.

• Caffeine present in coffee is a psychoactive substance. It improves one’s mood and enhances performance.

• Coffee reduces fatigue effectively and it is an active stimulant.

• Around 100 ml of coffee every hour you can stay all night awake. Coffee delays sleep and reduces sleep time.

• Coffee makes you more alert. If you drink coffee whole day you will be alert throughout the day.

• Coffee prevents formation of dental cavities.

But coffee has its downside as well. It is an addictive drink. People who drink coffee daily in the long run become an addict, not just to that smell and taste, but to the caffeine content. They can reach a state where seems impossible for them to function in life without a cup of their favorite coffee and its likable bitter taste. If you make drinking coffee a regular habit, it certainly presents you numerous benefits like improved mood, enhanced performance, and reduction of risks of a lot of diseases including cancer. But what if you cannot drink your coffee at the usual time you take it? You may suffer from a headache.

Fatigue reaches you. You feel restless. Your mood becomes dull. Your performance gets affected. If you regularly consume a large amount of coffee and stop drinking it suddenly you may suffer the withdrawal symptoms of caffeine addiction. This results in more adverse effects. Your blood sugar level becomes imbalanced. Your blood pressure gets affected. You may become easily impatient and get easily stressed. If you find this happening to you it is advisable to reduce your regular coffee intake and ease yourself out of your strong caffeine addiction. Limiting your daily intake will reduce your dependence on caffeine.

Though coffee has its own list of health benefits, like anything else, it should be taken only in moderation. Too much coffee has its own downside. So drink your cup of coffee, but only in a moderate amount to ensure a healthy you.

A Wine Snob

If you would enjoy fame as a wine expert, there is an easy way to acquire that reputation. Next time you are served a glass of wine, lift it by the stem (not the bowl!). Wave it under your nose with a circular motion. Smell the wine, and look thoughtful. Take a sip, cautiously. Then, find fault with it. This is the surefire way to have others regard you as a connoisseur Although it will get you by, you will only have qualified, thus far, as a wine snob.

If, on the other hand, you genuinely wish to cure your awe of unpronounceable wine labels, to hold your own in a wine discussion, to avoid being fleeced by nasty waiters, and to enjoy this delightful beverage without the risk of committing social disaster, take heart now. This article will help to unravel for most of the mystery that enshrouds the thousands of different liquids known as wine.

Not the lack of information, but too much—information that baffles and bewilders those who seek simple guidance to gustatory pleasure—is largely responsible for this mystery. Millions of words are written and spoken in praise and explanation of wine without an explanation of the explanations. Meanwhile the product itself becomes increasingly entangled in a maze of overlapping type names, geographical designations, vintages, and general mumbo jumbo so confusing that it is quite unintelligible to 99 out of 100 storekeepers and restaurateurs who sell the product.

The average American, who sometimes vaguely wonders what this or that bottle's contents might taste like, but who is not inclined to undertake lengthy investigations, usually just walks past the store shelf, or puts aside the restaurant's wine list, and buys beer, coke, or Bourbon instead.

Why does this hodgepodge continue to exist? Why don't wine labels tell in plain English what they mean? Who draws up those fearsome charts of vintage years and service temperatures, for what reason? Who decrees white wine with fish, red wine with red meat, long-stemmed glasses for Rhine, short ones for Burgundy? Why aren't the different kinds of wine given simple names, like those on the different kinds of canned soup, so that a novice can read the label and choose the vintage to serve with his skirt steak?

Much of wine's complexity can be blamed on its charm. Its romantic qualities, possessed by no other food or drink, receive so much attention that they tend to obscure its simple function as a beverage.

The homage paid to wine is richly deserved. As the blood of the grape, bestowed by Nature with the magic power to create happiness, it has sacred religious symbolism. Its beginnings are lost in antiquity; its ancient history is traced from the hieroglyphics of Egypt and Babylon, from the writings of Greek and Roman poets and from no less than one hundred and 65 references in the Bible.

Philosophers and physicians have sung wine's praises since the dawn of civilization, as an adjunct to life, health, and happiness. Modern gourmets and authors of cookbooks praise it as an inseparable companion of fine foods. Through all the ages of man it has been associated with feasting, philosophy, art, music, and love.

Little wonder that its advocates strive to preserve these intangible, romantic qualities. It is also understandable that wine's proud heritage of tradition, although a source of much puzzlement to the general public, still largely governs its production and nomenclature.

Helping to weave the web more thickly are wine's staunchest friends and admirers, the connoisseur cult of Great Britain and America, whose number grows with the sales of gourmet books and with the worldwide expansion of such organizations as the international Wine and Food Society. These worshipers of Bacchus regard red and white varietals in the way the philatelist, who never uses his specimens to mail his letters, regards the stamps he collects.

As they sip the object of their hobby (a kind of pleasure denied the stamp collectors), the wine fanciers discuss the optimum bottle age for Cabernet Sauvignon, the grievous error of serving brut Champagne with dessert, and fine distinctions between vintages—differences quite imperceptible to an average consumer and often also imperceptible (unless they peek at the labels) to the connoisseurs themselves.

Legendary Whiskey Cocktails

Sazerac

To make a Sazerac you will need two bottom heavy, 3 ½ ounce bar glasses. Fill one with cracked ice and water and allow it to chill. In the other glass place a lump of sugar along with just enough water to dampen it. The saturated lump of sugar can then be flattened and crushed with a spoon. Add a couple of drops of bitters, a dash of Angostura, a hearty shot of whiskey, for while bourbon may suffice for a julep it is not appropriate for a genuine Sazerac. In the glass containing sugar, bitters, and whiskey add quite a few lumps of ice and stir. A shaker is not necessary to make this drink.

Next empty the first glass of ice, add in several drops of absinthe, swirl the glass around a few times, and shake out the absinthe. The perfect amount will cling to the glass to give the cocktail the necessary zest. Strain into this glass the whiskey concoction, twist a rind of lemon peel over it for some extra flavor, but do not drop the rind into the drink-the lemon peel will overpower the cocktail otherwise. Some bartenders add a cherry, which makes for a nice garnish but is not absolutely necessary.

Kentucky Whiskey Cocktail

The ingredients needed for this libation are the following: 1 generous shot of bourbon whiskey, 1 shot of unsweetened pineapple juice, and 1 lump of sugar.

Begin by dissolving the sugar in the pineapple juice. Add in the bourbon, then followed by some ice cubes. Stir, then strain into a serving glass.

This cocktail can be made with whiskey, but then it would not be a true Kentucky Whiskey Cocktail, although the name might suggest something different. Some make this cocktail with orange juice instead of pineapple while some use sweetened pineapple juice. In the case of sweetened pineapple juice, the lump of sugar may not be needed.

Old Fashioned Cocktail

1 lump of sugar
2 dashes of bitters
1 large shot of whiskey
1 lemon peel
1 chunk of pineapple
1 orange peel
1 maraschino cherry

Add the sugar lump and bitters into a bottom heavy glass and muddle. Pour in the shot of whiskey and stir with several ice cubes. Do not use a shaker-allow the mixture to remain in the glass it was first mixed in. Garnish with the orange peel, chunk of pineapple, and the cherry with a dash of the maraschino juice. Twist the slice of lemon peel over everything and serve with a spoon.

Although this cocktail is indeed old fashioned it is as appealing to good taste now as it was on Derby Day a half century ago when the originator first stirred it into being at the Pendennis Club in Louisville, Kentucky.

The Old Fashioned has been a New Orleans tradition for countless years and when other whiskey drinks with fancy names have come and gone, the Old Fashioned will continue to entertain experienced palates. Do not try and use gin, rum, or brandy to take the place of whiskey in an Old Fashioned. An authentic Old Fashioned demands whiskey and a sturdy bar coaster.

Blue Blazer

1 lump of sugar
1 large shot of Scotch whiskey
1 shot of hot water

Have two mugs on hand and in one, dissolve the lump of sugar in the hot water. Next add the whiskey; be sure it's a quality brand with a high alcohol percentage, for it has to burn. Then carefully ignite the mixture. Hold the burning mug in one hand, then empty the fluid rapidly from one container to the other so that a streak of blue flame connects the two. Serve in a glass that is appropriate for hot liquid after twisting a bit of lemon peel over the mixture and topping with a grating of nutmeg. It is recommended to place the hot drink on a stone coaster of some kind to avoid damaging the surface it is resting on.

If you have cold feet, chattering teeth, the shivers, or frozen fingers, and want to warm up, you can thaw out no better than with a Blue Blazer.

This drink was a popular alcoholic drink aboard the lavish paddle-wheeled steamboats that churned the waters of the Mississippi during the time the Natchez and Robert E. Lee made history in upstream races to Saint Louis. The bartenders were expert in transferring the blue-flamed liquid from one mug to another, accomplishing the task with an agility that kept the flames from singeing their beards and moustaches before deftly placing the burning drink down on the patron's drink coaster!

Restaurant Statistics

There may be quite a few restaurant statistics that surprise you out there. Most of the time you will find restaurants have quite a bit of business. While there are peak times, they still have steady traffic during the day. Therefore finding out that many of them don’t make it to the first anniversary can be disheartening. This is often due to the fact that they didn’t take the time to learn all about the business before they started though.

The average family dines out at least once per week. Therefore you have a good chance of getting a hold of your share of the market. The problem though is that if you can’t consistently deliver quality food, fast and friendly service, and a great price to top it all off they won’t be coming through your doors. People don’t like to pay for food they aren’t happy with. They also expect the entire dining experience to be great for them.

Restaurant statistics indicate that when a customer isn’t happy with any of the above they aren’t likely to be returning any time soon. That is why you must work hard to keep them happy. A one time customer can turn into a weekly customer or at least one that comes in several times each month if they are happy with what they get.

You will also find it interesting that restaurant statistics indicate someone unhappy with their dining experience will tell more people than someone who is. While that seems really unfair to the restaurant it is true. A person often takes for granted that they did have a wonderful dining experience as that is what they expect when they pay for it. Let them have a dinner that is less than that though and they will have a hard time forgetting about it.

As a result of that mentality though you need to be careful how people are leaving your restaurant. If you have the attitude that it is only one customer out of many then you are looking at it the right way. You have no idea how many friends and family they will be able to influence to eat somewhere else because of the incident. Don’t underestimate the power that such negativity has to reduce your overall level of customers and profits.

If you are open minded to the ideas of customers you can continue to make it a great place for them. Restaurant statistics show that when customers feel appreciated and valued it means a great deal to them. They are comfortable and they feel like they are more than just a way for you to make money.

Do all you can to be sure that every single customer that walks into your restaurant walks out with a wonderful impression. If things aren’t going well then it needs to be addressed. Many customers are forgiving if they do get a satisfactory result to their complaint. You at least have a high chance that they will give you another chance if you accept responsibility for the issues.